Opeke Ready Made Gele

For most African women, tying a ‘Gele’ (head tie) is often a difficult ordeal, which ends up discouraging them from wearing this lovely piece and promoting our rich culture. The CEO of Opeke, Yinka Thomas-Ogboja, happens to be one of many women who used to face this ordeal prior to stepping out for an event. This challenge led to the birth of Opeke translated ‘fine girl’ or ‘omoge’, an indigenous fashion brand aimed at promoting the African culture and beauty. Opeke launched with a signature line called ‘ASAKE’, already pleated, easy-to-tie, ready-made geles.

According to Yinka:

”So this was how it started. I used to face the ordeal of tying my head tie prior to events and I realized the same applied to a couple of friends and family. It was either we couldn’t tie the geles properly, or dress-up took forever because of our struggles with the geles and husbands started to turn red in the face, or we weren’t ready to constantly enrich the pockets of makeup/gele artists (no offense). I even realized that some desired to dress traditional to church or certain functions but the headache of head gears was the beginning of abstinence. All these challenges led to the birth of Opeke’s signature line called ‘Asake’, a brand of already pleated, easy-to-tie, ready-made geles.”

This creative product enables you to tie your gele in less than a minute and yes, people assume you are a pro! Gone are those days when aso-oke was synonymous with dull and unappealing colours, Opeke adds a touch of bright, colorful and fun to their pieces, with the ability to customize pieces to suit the personalities of their clients. They make lovely gele-ebi, asake-ebi, outfits for brides-to-be, gele and ipele collections for women of luxury and style.

The good news is that you can pack all your geles to them to ‘asakerize’ or buy from their collections. So you don’t have to worry anymore about not being able to tie your geles!